Uni moving forward know we didnt we were not told with these improvements would be. I know that we have had over 7000 people asking to have these things mitigated and to have more input and they just steamroll us. I would say they are disingenuous at best and i would like to have more public input to everything and frankly, this is one of the ways to do it. Im very concerned that after this they are going after masonic avenue theyve already done things on fisadero. Fyi a masonic was six months ago. Next person please come up. I am marianne aganas. They had no idea what it was going to turn out to be. They did a studytthe sfmta i forget the name the company a thing was bmg but theyrated that four out of five of the trees were good and healthy. I just want to see the trees that we have now and what we can expect in the future. Overhead please. Overhead please. Do i have to say . I dont know. Can you see that . On its such a big tree doesnt fit on the screen. Maybe this one will be better. This is a group of trees that flower even. And, after three years of construction may be much longer than that they will plant saplings of the lemon scented gum trees and this is what it is going to look like after after maybe 15 or 20 years of growth. I wouldnt call that a canopy. Its a skanky looking tree at that. [laughing] now mature trees are extremely important to a healthy environment. They provide oxygen reduce pollution and noise they protect us from the heat of the sun and they cool the streets. And it is said this is for the the public warrant that this would be done at the sidewalk not in the middle. I have right here a petition signed of 764 people and their comments or agree with this. This is only a small sampling. We will let you finish your thought but your time was up. Oh, it is up . I didnt hear the last bell. Can i finish my last thought please . Yes go ahead. Is going to happen in many neighborhoods and like she said, we do not find out until it is a done deal. That is not fair to the public. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello thank you my name is lara decarl i live on green street near ravenna but my children were here today and they wanted to speak to you but due to the hour we had to send them home. I am here obviously as a very effective resident. Its going to happen right outside my door. I am actually concerned about the dust and im concerned about the noise and im concerned about additional congestion and traffic and people turning right onto green street at unbelievable speeds like they do off of golf and franklin these days. These things are going to be happening when the traffic shifts. People are going to be moving on to the side streets. The congestion is going to be created by the reduction in lanes along than a and that will force them to turn off of neighboring streets such as golf and vanna. Those concerns i wanted to communicate am also deeply concerned about the small that will be created because of congestion in the particular matter that we will experience over the residential corridor highway 101 or not this is a residentialcore door. There is an alternative to the construction that they are proposing and there is a much less disruptive plan. And im sorry, i will conclude. Is there a question that yet . Okay. Next speaker please. Is the overhead projector on . Yes just place it down estate looking at yourself. Overhead please. Like you are looking at. Thank you. Good morning. My name is diana scott and i thank you pres. Honda and commissioners for the opportunity to present strong reasons to support this appeal and its impact on trees and its lack of financial sustainability. This is the last remaining opportunity to talk about the reverse impact of the pp w tree cutting and its order and before the construction contract of 313 million that will be approved next tuesday at a special meeting at city hall. No other city ac approvals are needed for this project. 100 Million Dollars needed for this project is not currently available this means the median trees can be cut and replaced whether or not the project goes forward. The board of appeals reversal of this order is critical at this moment. Once these trees are cut, they cant be uncut. The mta needs to reconsider other funding or Design Options now before the dpw cuts trees. Theres other less intrusive and less costly options that have been mentioned like curbside and fast lanes that would save most of the median and sidewalk trees and create less excavation because the excavation is to protect the median under the median sewer lines that will be impacted by the platform for median. Buses the project will create traffic snarls and hurt businesses. Please consider this before approving this as revised by the mta. This slide accommodates different ways of traveling and remains voracious i know everyone has been patient here but okay thank you. Thank you next speaker please. On march 14, 2006 17 foot cork oak there planted on venice street. I live on venice street. The tree it was dedicated for civil rights by the near rosa park. The significant of rosa park is a raised in rosa park did not move. This is an unjust act. Trees deemed unfeasible this will affect the visual aesthetics of our neighborhood to the point of alienation. Instead of cultivating and preserving the healthy trees and shrubs that we have for days to come the plan will create enormous sums of money to reestablish that which cannot be replaced. This will dispose of our own urban forest history and replace it with a toxic option. Please redirect funds to the restoration of the historical light post and the maintenance of the roads and the existing trees along the end a highway 101 corridor and beyond thank you. [timer dings] that is a hard act to follow. Eileen volk and i am a sunset park resident and theyre a lot of people that are here today in solidarity with the vanness communities supporting their appeal. The citys approach towards street trees have become a panic. On the other hand the city will be proposing a tech totax preserve street tees in the November Ballot do and that it will be to maintain a healthy street trees including those on vanness. Thank you he created thank you my name is al manas. I ask that you respectfully reject this tree permit. Take into this consideration that this project has grown from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. This project is an insufficient use of hundreds of millions of dollars of tax dollars for a modest improvement. Because the city has a budget deficit the project sponsor is issuing hundreds of millions of dollars of additional new bond debt in order to pay for a like this. Projectalthough we already pay for additional sales tax for this project the city is preparing a ballot measure toadd a new sales tax and why not try the express option first we could implement that tomorrow and it would save these trees and it would provide improvements for those who elect to a ride the express limited bus and it would meet the requirements of the a10 hundreds of dollars in taxes and new rider fees. And it would save it would not require the writers to wait for the buses in the middle of a congested highway and it would be more accommodating and safer option for the elderly that live here. Please project the tree permit and tell the project sponsors to reengage with the community and listen to us. [timer dings] thank you. Mary liza here thank you for hearing us this morning or this evening wherever areat right now i will be brief youve already received a letter from me i will talk about the design details. If you look at the design alternatives required in the eir only one design required removal of the street trees. This is the most expensive alternativend creates the most impact. We see this pattern of the mta picking the most expensive and impact of design instead of the least expensive and least impact of designs. We ask that you question the validity of the organization for a propensity for choosing the most expensive alternative and greatest negative impacts on our residents and businesses. How does this project that removes trees, bus stops, traffic lanes and parking and now bus seats help the mta to assure quality life of San Francisco the primary objective of the system must be the safe and efficient movement of the people and they should move the the route to the bus lane move trees to the left of the basra. Thank you. You would see 30 or 40 people lined up for google buses a handful of people waiting for a unibus. This whole thing has been a lie from the beginning. They started out telling this us this would be paid by the they said vanness avenue had no double parking one hour were study that they did and it was a whole 14 pages and they dida one hour study and that was the whole project. I heard the cdc say the other night they would just have to step up enforcement to deal with the delivery trucks but people still need their goods in the garbage needs to still be part picked up in the real pickle is that caltrans has to pick that up in the city has to put that back in 30 days in the city has no money to do that and i dont know what will happen then. Youre going to ccut all these trees down for nothing and these people know that all of us are against it and they just grind us down and they lie and they say 75 of the public is for it and i have been against it since 2008 when they started it and its been one lie after another. Please read the ir. It will be available at 7 oclock in the morning. I will buy you a coffee. Thank you. I might need that tonight. Next speaker. Good morning. I am here to speak in favor of the bus route transit project. I rely heavily on the buses that run on this route. Im not alone about 30 to 40 of the people that use these roots board on van ness. And all of these will improve by the median Transit Center and it removes buses from traffic and by doing so it will remove the issue of having four buses in a row and it will be Faster Service and it will get people out of their cars and that will be an environmental benefit. Trees are an environmental benefit but transit has a huge effect on our environment and this could really improve the environment from the perspective. Everybody likes trees when you have a huge Infrastructure Project there are some downsides to it. There are some future games but if you look at Market Street there were shortterm construction impacts no more than this one but nobody said we shouldnt have the Market Street shuttle or the twin peaks shuttle this is critical to her how we get people all i around the city i would suggest that you consider this this is a longer process we are kind of on the brink of finally being able to build something that will improve transit for the thousands of bus riders in any acknowledgment of this would be great and we can just move forward. Thank you. [timer dings] next speaker please hello, my name is nicole soroka. I am a longterm resident of the city. I live on van ness avenue. My bedroom window faces the trees that are being slaughtered and i also work for an Accounting Firm and i believe that we will be losing more than we are gaining. I do not see how were looking at this intelligently. Brts were designed for spacious core doors and not areas like van ness avenue. This is been evidenced in places likebrazil and even in the United States such as Cleveland Ohio and these all have very low ratings for transportation and Development Policy standards. I would like to end by saying that you know, i think i will end with a quote by dr. Seuss. The lorax. If someone like you does not care an awful lot no one well. They will not. And what sort of precedent are we setting for the city of San Francisco. Thank you. [applause] patricia boyd, what im seeing on the trees is what i saw a few years ago. And they came and said they were putting palm trees on lombard. The italians werent happy. I had to facilitate the meetings and put pictures on bags to get an adequate boat. Im seeing several projects being piecemeal. Im waiting for us to be next on the tree issue. 3000 people voted for this in the city to trim them and they didnt and then they gave them to the responsibility of the landowners. The trees in the median were supposed to be public who is going to pay for . Is that the city . Is that the state . Is that the federal government . A lot of answers have not been answered on this. What im really saying is that a piecemeal laying of the project that was planned years ago and not told to the public for all of these connecting roots to the brt say saying now, i am confused because in one drawling the brt says there are moving the trees in one drawing they say theyre replacing them in one say that they are drawing them down. I am confused and i think that we need to go back to the drawing board. [timer dings] next speaker please. The new trees probably will not grow to their full size for 15 to 20 years from now. After they first remove the countries it will be another 20 years before the partial canopy will be there but theres new trees will not provide the canopy that we have now on be in nest. There are other ways to accomplish the goals of mta with their plans for the van ness corridor. By granting this appeal you have the unique chance of making a difference in the lives of the residence not only on van ness but the rest of San Francisco and also the rest of the world that comes to San Francisco and drives on the van ness corridor. I hope you will save the vns trees by granting this appeal. I would like to quickly read two statements from people who could not make it tonight. Paula paley who lives a few blocks from vanness and rides on vns frequently. She says i have lived near vanness for 40 years and ive always loved the trees on vns and other streets on our city. I appreciate and care about the trees on vns and want to preserve them. My office is on vns and i drive that helped five days a week. And i called the board of appeals to get more details and i also feel frustrated because at this late notice i cannot speak at the meeting. The issue is how to accomplish those goals without defacing and the character in the city and creating more problems for already overly congested traffic. Just two more sentences. How do we not think this will resolve in a traffic nightmare. Finally how can you want to replace those trees with new native trees. Thank you very much. Hello i am the bald eagle. I came here i told that this tree discussion would be from 5 to 6 tonight but its midnight. Its 1230 i appreciate all of your time for her taking your time and i appreciate you doing your job so well so thank you very much. Thank you for sharing your opinions and representing your can stconstituents so that is good. Trees are good. It makes a green. Its a good thing. But you know what . All these peoples opinions and smoking lies always peoples pretty much messed up stuff that they are talking about doesnt matter. I am going to make it very efficient and im going to say that my computer is going to tell you whether or not you should vote yes or no on this thing. It says yes. Alright thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, good morning my name is pete i live on venice avenue. I want to take the time to express my support for the appeals and asked that you deny the permit despite the project being up her. Also that you would consider the brt alternative too to it to allow the trees to be on thecurbside this will also make it more efficient for the mta riders. Many of the trees have full canopies of 50 to 60 feet and greater than 75 of the median trees is a 4 to 5 would be a sustainable tree it means by removing and replanting 100 trees by putting in 200 trees the city stands to use 400,000 gallons more water during a drought period to get established trees and that would be to a full majority in canopy. Aside from the environmental cost of moving the healthy trees the results cost andresourcewill keep the city in construction for over three years. Overhead please. In addition to environmental costs and taxpayer money this will cost lives this will only permit access to the cross work from one direction. [timer dings] please finish up please. This terminates in traffic and its twice as wide and people can go in opposite directions away from the boarding area. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Good morning members. My name is robert bartel. I voted for proposition k in 2003 and if anybody doubt that you can download the entire ballad from the library and see that a bus Rapid Transit was was specified on van nest i am currently on the Community Advisory committee. It is been 13 years that we have been working on it and everything i hear about the project is being considered, turned upside down, and looked at in the locally preferred alternative was chosen because it was the best alternative. I understand, i mean the sentiment for the trees i understand that we love trees i understand that we love the mature canopy but as a gentleman that was up for five people earlier it is a tradeoff. If we are going to improve our infrastructure as we voted for in 2003 we will have to cut the trees down. It is maybe too bad but it is a small sacrifice to make. I know people here are not going to live to see including me at the mature canopy but its something that we can do for the future and i urge you to reject it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good morning my name is joel septer. I think that what youve heard today from the public its demonstrated in my view that the trees that are cut down will not be adequately replaced. So i think in terms of the appeal, what is being said here is that the trees will be cut down and whenever the lemon gum trees appear it will not compare to what we currently have. So it will not be improved by what is being proposed. Thank you. Thank you next speaker please. Good morning. My name is daizai am here to support the appeal and we have a very special attitude towards the trees that they are not taking into consideration. Look at each project and they are not considered. There just cut down and whenever we see the project its always like cutting trees and replacing them and in parks its the same story 18,500 trees are going down pretty soon with these natural reserves program with the natural reserves plan its not acceptable. I doubt anything will be done in the process will improve the traffic on vanness. It was always so awful since the 80s it was off all i was there back then and its awful now and ill be awful again. So i think that not removing the trees will be much much cheaper please do approve the appeal and do not move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is capt. Edwards. I do live on van ness. Vanness in greenwich street. I think that what part of the problem is is that even though they